by Claire Kent
Erin smiled at him agreeably. “Yep. I’m late too. Do you want a sandwich or—”
“Erin!” Seth roared.
Laughing in a rush of affection, Erin reached up and stroked his cheek tenderly. Kissed his annoyed face. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Seth’s impatience subsided quickly. “You too. Have a good afternoon.” He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and opened the office door to let her out.
Erin headed immediately for his assistant’s desk and gave the woman an order for Seth’s lunch from the bistro in the building next door.
As she walked toward the elevator, Erin realized she was still rather aroused. It was a little uncomfortable, but it wasn’t the main issue on her mind.
She’d been right.
Her relationship with Seth wasn’t anything like the one she’d had with Marcus.
***
Her father left after seven o’clock, after having dinner with them, and Erin gave Mackenzie a bath in preparation for bed. She put the baby in a bright red sleeper with hearts on the collar, so Seth would be satisfied in her being dressed in little girls’ pajamas.
Then Erin sat in the nursery rocker, nursed Mackenzie, and read her a baby book out loud.
When she finished, it was just about Mackenzie’s bedtime, but Seth hadn’t arrived yet. Glancing at the clock, Erin decided she could wait a few more minutes before putting her daughter to bed. Mackenzie was starting to get a little tired, but she wasn’t too crabby yet.
And Erin was sure Seth wanted to say goodnight to her.
Grabbing Mackenzie’s soft blanket and one of her stuffed bunnies—the collection now boasted more than twenty bunnies and was getting bigger each month—Erin took the baby to the living room and set her down on the floor.
They played peek-a-boo for a few minutes with the blanket, which always made Mackenzie giggle. Then Erin set the bunny a small distance away, making her practice half-crawling, half-creeping on her belly in order to reach it.
Soon, she heard a knock on the door. “It’s me,” Seth called out from the hall.
“Come on in,” Erin called back, watching as Mackenzie squealed in delight as she finally reached her stuffed bunny.
Seth had a key to her apartment by now, so he let himself in. Stood watching as Erin once more set the bunny a short distance from their daughter and Mackenzie responded by clumsily scooting herself over in order to get it.
Smiling up at him, Erin said, “Hey. You got here just in time. It’s just about her bedtime.”
Seth nodded and lowered himself until he was sitting on a low ottoman near them. “Hi, Mackenzie. Has your mommy been teasing you with your rabbit?” Then he added, “She’s starting to move better on her own.” Although his last remark had been aimed at Erin, he was still focusing down on the chubby little figure—wearing red, with red hair and red cheeks—who now stared up at him.
Erin felt a ridiculous surge of pride. “I know. We’ve been practicing.”
Smiling almost fondly, Seth murmured, “I can see that.”
She felt flooded with warm, fluttery sensations—and she wasn’t exactly sure if it was caused by Seth’s affectionate gaze or by her daughter’s obvious brilliance.
Feeling kind of embarrassed at her sappy, maternal feelings, Erin looked up at him. “How was work?”
“It was fine.”
“Did you eat any dinner?” she asked, thinking he looked a little tired today. He was as slick and handsome as normal, but his eyes looked a little fuzzy. “Stella made some—”
Before she could finish, Seth’s phone rang. Scowling, she watched as he pulled it out of his jacket pocket and glanced at the screen.
She could tell from his expression that he was going to take the call.
“Don’t be long,” she told him as he gave her an explanatory look, “or I’ll put her to bed without you.”
He nodded and connected the call. Bit out, “Thomas,” as he paced into the hallway. When she heard a door shut, she assumed he’d closed himself in her bedroom where he could have some privacy.
Erin sighed, her fond flutters entirely dissipated. “Your daddy will be right back,” she told Mackenzie. “He still has some work to do.”
Mackenzie was sitting on the floor and leaning on her bunny, her little hands squeezing around the soft material. She babbled out a few incoherent sounds, as if she were talking to the stuffed animal.
To kill time, Erin played some more peek-a-boo, but she could see Mackenzie gradually getting more and more tired.
After more than five minutes, Mackenzie’s mouth gaped in a huge yawn.
“I know it’s bedtime, but we have to wait for your daddy. He'll want to say goodnight.”
Mackenzie looked up at Erin’s face with wide blue eyes.
Erin nodded and felt the ridiculous urge to give her daughter a huge squeeze. Instead of doing so, she said again, “We have to wait for your daddy.”
Mackenzie blinked at her.
“Your daddy,” Erin repeated, having gotten in the habit of repeating certain words over and over again.
“Da,” Mackenzie mumbled.
Erin felt like she’d been kicked in the gut. In a good way.
In a very good way.
After a stunned moment, she burst into a huge grin. “That’s right,” she exclaimed, her voice pitched exuberantly as she realized what her daughter had just almost said. “Your daddy. Daddy!”
“Da,” Mackenzie said again, smiling vaguely in response to Erin’s obvious excitement.
“That’s right,” Erin said again, unable to stop grinning. “Good job, pumpkin. Your daddy. Daddy!” She clapped her hands together softly to emphasize her enthusiasm.
Mackenzie was obviously infected with Erin’s high spirits. She clenched and unclenched her fists and started to giggle, breaking her giggles with a repetition of “Da! Da! Da!” Then she got too ecstatic and started gibbering, “Ga ba ny hee ga!”
“Daddy,” Erin prompted, crouched down so low she was practically on her stomach. “Daddy.”
“Da!”
“Seth!” Erin called, almost in tears of excitement and wishing fervently that he was here too. Clapping her hands lightly again, she said distinctly, “Daddy. Daddy.”
Mackenzie sat with her legs spread apart, the bunny on the floor just in front of her. Her round cheeks were bright red now, and she was clearly delighted by whatever this new development was. She raised her hands up dramatically and started thrusting her elbows down to her sides in choppy excitement, repeating, “Da! Da! Da!”
Erin felt a surge of regret that Seth wasn’t around to witness this, and she turned unconsciously to look at the hallway.
Seth stood at the entrance to the living room, staring down at his daughter.
His mouth was slightly open, his eyes were rather dazed, and his phone dangled forgotten in his left hand.
Erin felt a rising wash of joy. “There’s your daddy!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands one more time.
Mackenzie clapped her hands too, mimicking her mother’s excitement. “Da!”
Erin waited for Seth to do something, but he just stood motionless and stared.
So she prompted, “Seth?” She could tell that Seth was moved—whether Mackenzie really knew what she was saying or not—but he looked like he was momentarily frozen.
Finally, shaking himself off, Seth came forward into the living room. Knelt down beside Erin. “Good job,” he murmured softly, reaching out a hand to his daughter. “Did you decide to take advantage of my absence to show off a little?”
Mackenzie was still ecstatic and hit at Seth’s hand several times with an overload of enthusiasm before she grabbed a couple of his fingers and clung to them.
Fortunately, this interlude allowed Erin to recover her ironic perspective. “I think it was her way of protesting work phone calls in the middle of her daddy time.”
Seth turned his head and gave Erin a warm look. “Is that right?”
“Yes. Tha
t’s right. I'm sure she was just proving to you the kinds of things you might miss.”
He arched his eyebrows at her and looked like he was going to respond, but then he sniffed and obviously changed his focus. “It smells like she might have been doing something else while I was gone as well.”
Erin sniffed too. Smelled something very familiar. “Well, then, I guess it’s your chance to have some bonding time with her—while you change her diaper.”
Mackenzie, obviously resenting the fact that she was no longer the center of attention, was banging a hard staccato on her innocent bunny’s nose and grunting. One of the grunts sounded like another, “Da!”
“See,” Erin said, hiding a pleased grin. “She’s asking for you to change her.”
Shaking his head resignedly, Seth picked his daughter up and carried her into the nursery.
Erin sat on the floor for a minute, exulting in her daughter’s verbal genius and in the fact that Seth had been here to share in it too.
Then she jumped to her feet, picked up the blanket and stuffed bunny, and hurried toward the nursery herself.
Instead of announcing her presence, however, she stood in the doorway and listened—even after all this time, unable to resist trying to overhear what Seth might say to their daughter.
He was wiping Mackenzie's little bottom with a baby wipe and telling her softly, “…very impressive performance. You have every right to be proud of yourself. And you made your mommy very happy.” He grabbed another wipe and finished cleaning her off. “But I think it would make her even happier if you would say her name too. Mommy.” He spoke clearly and calmly—without even a trace of normal baby talk. “Mommy.”
Mackenzie just giggled up at him and kicked her legs around a little.
Seth shook his head. “Mommy,” he repeated. “Your mommy.”
“Da!” Mackenzie burst out.
Chuckling resignedly, Seth nodded his head. “That’s better than nothing. We’ll keep working on it.”
He started putting a new diaper on the baby. Erin couldn’t see his face or the front of his body, but she assumed Mackenzie must have grabbed for his tie, because he said, “There are far more effective ways of getting my attention than trying to strangle me.”
Erin crossed her arms across her chest and squeezed herself a little, smiling and wondering if she might melt away from the raw tenderness of it.
“You know,” Seth continued, snapping up Mackenzie’s sleeper and then holding her up to stand on the changing table, “Your mommy is a remarkable woman, and she loves you very much. But she’s really very nosy, and she should know that eavesdropping on private conversations isn’t socially acceptable.”
Erin’s jaw dropped open as she realized she’d been caught.
Acknowledging her guilt, she burst into rippling laughter. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist.”
Picking Mackenzie up and holding her against him, Seth turned around and raised his eyebrows at Erin. “And what exactly about my changing her diaper is so irresistible?”
Erin shrugged, a little self-consciously. She took a few steps over toward them. Felt so deeply connected to this articulate man and the squirming red-haired baby he held that she felt like she could drown in the feeling.
She gave Mackenzie a kiss on the cheek. Then she gave Seth a kiss on the lips. “I don’t know. I just feel like I get to see a different side to you when you’re with her alone.”
The eyebrows went up even higher. “And why is that so appealing?”
“I guess it’s just more of you to love.”
* * *
Erin warmed up leftover pot roast and the accompanying vegetables for Seth, and he ate in the kitchen while Erin finished the dishes and straightened up. Then he needed to conclude the call he’d been making earlier—since he’d ended it prematurely and rather abruptly—so Erin lit a couple of fragrant candles and took a bath.
The length of time between Mackenzie's bedtime and her own bedtime was basically the only time of the day Erin was able to have some real, quiet relaxation.
She was getting tired when she finally came back into the bedroom, wearing blue satin pajama pants and a stretchy matching tank top. Her hair was still clipped at the back of her head, and she carried a load of clean sheets which she’d just taken from the dryer.
Seth was off the phone and was propped up on a couple of pillows on the bed, reading what looked to be a very long legal document of some kind. He’d taken off his shoes, socks, jacket, and tie, but otherwise he was still fully dressed.
“Are you still working?” she grumbled, when she saw what he was doing.
Seth didn’t even look up from his reading. “You were taking a bath.”
“Well, I’m not anymore.” Erin set the laundry basket on the floor and then sat down on Seth’s side of the bed with a flop. “You work too hard.”
“Work has to be done.” He turned a page and shifted his legs away from her slightly, since she’d basically just sat down on top of them.
Erin watched him silently for a moment. Then started rubbing one of his shins over the expensive fabric of his trousers. “Does it really have to be done right now?” she asked huskily.
Either her touch or the tone of her voice made Seth look up. His eyes skimmed down over her bare arms and clearly outlined breasts. He put the report he’d been reading on the nightstand. “No,” he replied, his voice warming in a predictable way. “I suppose it doesn’t have to be done now. Did you want me to follow through on my IOU from this afternoon?”
Erin hesitated. Then shrugged a little. “I don’t know. Maybe not this evening. I’m not sure I have the energy. Or something.”
He arched one eyebrow. “All you’d have to do is lie there. I was planning to do all of the work.”
“True. But maybe we can save it until later. I’m not really in that kind of a mood this evening.”
Seth was evidently starting to realize that they weren’t going to jump right into sex. “Did you want to talk about something?” He sounded a little wary, as if he weren't certain he'd enjoy the conversation.
Erin shifted and ran her hands down to his feet. Idly stroked the arch of his foot and watched as his toes curled down instinctively. “I don’t think so. Nothing in particular. I just feel...weird. Kind of restless or something. I felt that way at lunch, but then I was all right. But now it’s back. I’m not quite sure what it is.”
“You look like there’s something on your mind.” His eyes were sharp and observant as they studied her face. “Are you sure something isn’t wrong?” He stretched out his legs as she continued rubbing his calves.
She didn’t respond. Just focused down on his bare feet. Tried to get a handle on her mood so she could express exactly what it was she felt like doing.
“Erin? Is something wrong?” When she glanced up at his face, he pulled his feet away from her and held her gaze. “Have you changed your mind about...us?”
This finally prompted a reaction with her. “No! Of course not. What kind of stupid talk is that?”
Seth narrowed his eyes, looking cool and slightly aloof. “It was just a question. You seemed reluctant to talk about something. It’s a perfectly legitimate possibility.”
“It certainly is not legitimate. Why the hell would you think I’ve changed my mind about us? Think about this afternoon.”
With a skeptical expression, Seth replied, “I know. But there could be alternate explanations for your generosity in my office. No need to overreact. It was just a question.”
“Well, it’s not a good kind of question. It makes me think you’re doubting my feelings for you, if you believe I’d already be dumping you.”
“I don’t think you’re dumping me.” He was starting to look a little impatient. “I just asked a question, based on one possible scenario, which was prompted by your current behavior.”
“It’s not a possible scenario. I have no intentions of dumping you. Ever.” She stood up and went to grab the fitted sheet out o
f the laundry basket. Turned around and glared at him.
For a brilliant man, sometimes he was the biggest idiot she'd ever met.
Seth glared back at her, more cold than annoyed. “Good. I’m glad to hear it.”
He didn’t sound glad. He sounded hard and arrogant, and like he wouldn't lower himself to her level by actually getting angry.
Erin hated when he was in this mood. It always made her want to slap the icy hauteur off his face.
She didn’t, of course. Instead, she said curtly, “Get up. I need to change the sheets.”
Seth rolled his eyes and acted like she was making him move just to spite him, but he pulled himself to his feet—as if it had been a huge effort—and then started pulling the comforter off, dropping it in a heap on the floor.
Erin walked to the other side of the bed and flung out one side of the sheet toward him. When he grabbed it, smoothed it out, and started pulling it toward the upper corner of the mattress, Erin worked on her side and muttered, “I might as well ask you if you’re starting to change your mind about us.”
Seth slanted her an exasperated look.
“What?” she demanded, yanking on the last corner of the sheet ruthlessly before she fitted it smoothly over the mattress.
“That would be the most absurd kind of question.”
Huffing at the injustice of this remark, Erin grabbed the top sheet. “Why? Why would it be so much more absurd than your question to me? Just because you figured things out a little bit sooner than I did?” She shook the sheet out over the bed. Saw Seth catch the opposite side of it.
He watched her beneath heavy eyelids. His gray dress shirt was slightly rumpled, and he appeared wholly incongruous, holding one side of a sheet in his hands. “You know very well how I feel about you.”
“And you know how I feel about you.” She focused on smoothing the sheet over the mattress and then tucking in the bottom corner.
Neatly taking care of his corner, Seth glanced up at her. “I know what you told me, but you told me then that you weren’t sure about things and didn’t want any sort of commitment, and you haven’t yet said anything different—”
Erin snorted again, interrupting him in her outrage. “You’ve got to be kidding me! You’re complaining because I don’t express my feelings enough? So says the man who has never once said he loves me.”